Tag Archives | banana

I know it sounds cliché, but this summer is passing at ridiculous speed.

I want to have time to blog, but I don’t. In fact, I barely even find the time to cook lately. I’m blaming the kids (partly because it’s the easy thing to do. Ha!). Even though they sleep late, giving the illusion that the days are unfolding at a lazy pace, once they are up…BOOM! Between the endless stream of snacking, dirty dishes, teenage hangs, and driving (oh…and one is practicing for her driving test), the time for planning, blogging, and setting up photo shots is reduced to just about nothing.

Once I spied the four over-ripening bananas in the basket, I had this bread in the back of my brain. I somehow managed to throw it together on a day when I worked an unscheduled day on the farm (even though I wasn’t feeling all too well), immediately followed by filling an emergency babysitting need for my daughter.

Summer, you are my favorite time of year. Please slow down so we can cuddle a bit.

These are a spin on chocolate covered bananas on a stick, only a little more easier to handle and a lot more customizable.

Start with 3-4 ripe bananas, sliced to about 1/2-inch thickness. Lay the slices on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and freeze for at least 15 minutes.

Melt 5 ounces of dark chocolate with 1 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil in a double boiler or in the microwave until smooth.

Using a fork, dip each slice in the chocolate and put back on the cookie sheet. Use a cooling rack to allow the excess chocolate to drip if you don’t want it to pool around the sides of the banana slices. Continue Reading →

It’s the thing we associate with socializing and movie-watching. It keeps us going until the next meal. It sustains us on road trips, airplanes, and really looooong days at work.

I had a conversation with a coworker about healthy snacking the other day. She admitted to being stumped sometimes as to what to give her kids. She wanted options that are easy, filling, lower in sugar, easy for small hands to hold, and lunch-packable….pretty much what most grown-ups want, too (except for maybe the small hands part). I had several posts planned ahead and realized that they fit into the category of healthy snacks. A series is born. For the next few weeks, I will be featuring snacks than can be thrown together quickly (some might even pass for a meal in a bind).

Dates are something I usually have on hand in my pantry. They can be chopped up to make granola bars, these date nut bites, or this brussel sprout salad. The trick to making this smoothie, well…smooth is to use really fresh dates (which can usually be found in the produce section or dried fruit section of your grocery store). If your dates are a bit old, you can revive them by placing them in a shallow bowl and covering them with water for 30 minutes.